Nepal’s Oppn parties to oppose constitution amendment bill

Kathmandu, Apr 28 (PTI) Nepal’s main opposition alliance led by the CPN-UML has decided to oppose the constitution amendment bill tabled by the government in Parliament, saying it was against the country and its people.

During a meeting of the nine party-alliance yesterday, the opposition parties also decided to register more amendments to the proposal.

The Nepal government has tabled a new Constitution amendment bill in Parliament to address the demands of the agitating Madhesi parties which are demanding more representation and re-demarcation of state boundaries ahead of next month s local elections.

According to the new bill, the government may form a federal commission to recommend it on the issues relating to the number of provinces and their boundaries.

Deputy leader of UML Parliamentary Party Subas Nembang said his party would take leadership to ensure that the government s charter revision proposal is defeated.

The meeting concluded that the proposal was against the country and its people, Nembang said.

“Efforts will be made to defeat the proposal and the UML will take a leadership in this regard alongside other alliance partners, he said.

The meeting also discussed the incident wherein the government recalled the communication sent by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development for the revision of the number of local units in 11 districts.

Going against the government s decision to hold the local level elections in two phases, Nembang said the alliance had taken the government s step to move forward the local level revision issue only in agreement with the opposition as a positive move.

The ruling party alliance had registered the revised constitution amendment bill in the Parliament to bring the agitating Madhesi parties on board the local level elections slated for May 14.

The opposition parties have more than one-third lawmakers in 601-member House. If the opposition parties kept the alliance intact, the government would fail to muster the two- thirds majority required to pass the amendment bill.

The government, however, claimed that the amendment bill would be passed without the opposition parties.